Police: Son of Palmer man admits wanting to kill people

ANCHORAGE — A 28-year-old man has reportedly confessed to a murderous rampage that left two people dead and three more in critical condition.

Anchorage police and Alaska State Troopers say Christopher Erin Rogers Jr. of Palmer admitted to intentionally leaving a trail of death and mayhem Sunday and early Monday starting at his family home near the Alaska State Fairgrounds and ending with his arrest by Anchorage police after a brief chase.

Police and troopers say Rogers Jr. used a machete to kill his sleeping father, 51-year-old Christopher Erin Rogers Sr., and seriously injure his father’s girlfriend. The younger Rogers is also allegedly responsible for a deadly shooting and two more attempted murders in Anchorage within a 26-hour span.

Rogers told police he hit the streets of Anchorage to search for more victims after attacking his father and girlfriend, identified in court documents as Elann Moran, 55, with a machete early Sunday, according to a court complaint that details Rogers’ alleged confession to troopers and police on Monday.

The suspect told police he knew he’d be arrested soon for his crimes and “just wanted to kill a few more people along the way,” the court complaint says.

He faces two charges of first-degree murder and three charges of attempted first-degree murder, and will be arraigned today at 4 p.m. in Anchorage.

The pieces fit together as troopers and police began a joint investigation into seemingly random attacks committed Sunday and Monday with the machete and a .357 magnum revolver.

The Anchorage victims were chosen by chance, two for robbery and one for no other reason than the suspect felt he’d made his victim nervous, according to a complaint affidavit filed Monday in District 3 Court by Steve Hill of the Anchorage Police Department.

Jason Wenger, 27, was killed early Sunday during an aborted car-jacking at Lois Street and Spenard in Anchorage. Wenger was found hours later, the vehicle idling in his driveway with its radio on. Later Sunday, 33-year-old jogger Elizabeth Rumsey was shot in the back when a man who had asked her for the time fired several rounds at her. Early Monday, a 911 call alerted police to the shooting and car-jacking of 43-year Tamas Deak as he left his Jeep idling in his driveway at 16th Avenue and K Streets.

The one-man crime wave began early Sunday in Palmer, troopers and Anchorage police outlined at a Monday press conference.

Troopers were called at 5:45 a.m. to the Rogers’ Palmer home in the 14000 block of East Gunnysack Road when Moren called for help after being attacked while she slept next to Rogers Sr., says an affidavit supporting charges filed in Palmer court. Troopers responded and Rogers Sr. was pronounced dead at the scene.

Moren told troopers she had spent the previous day at home with Rogers Sr. and his son and that she and her boyfriend retired to bed after dinner Saturday night.

“She was awakened by being struck with an object and she observed that Rogers Jr. was standing above her as he struck her, stating words to the effect of, ‘You made me do this,’” AST Sgt. Craig L. Allen states in the affidavit. Moren was severely injured in the attack and rushed to a hospital. She told troopers she believed the younger Rogers may have taken some prescription medication she had with her before the attack.

After hearing his Miranda rights, Anchorage police say Rogers told APD officer Hill and AST Investigator Curtis Vik he was “angry with his father and the father’s girlfriend,” Hill says in his affidavit supporting charges against Rogers Jr. “Rogers perceived that family members thought poorly of him and he harbored angry feelings about poor treatment by those family members.”

Rogers told troopers he attacked the couple with a machete, the affidavit says. “He described that the attack took a lot of energy and that he should have ‘just shot them,’ but he didn’t know where his father’s gun was.”

After the attack he took his father’s black truck and revolver that was inside the vehicle. He said he ditched the truck near a gas station, leaving the machete inside, according to the criminal complaint.

On the lookout for a vehicle to steal, police say Rogers told them he found a Ford Bronco idling and shot the driver. Because of the noise the gunshots created, Rogers Jr. did not drive the vehicle away and left Wenger dead in the driver’s seat.

Police say the shots were heard between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. Sunday, but were mistaken for a backfiring vehicle. Rogers then told police he fled through the downtown area, bought beer and cigarettes from a liquor store and slept in some woods.

“He alleged he no longer worried about being apprehended and just wanted to kill a few more people along the way,” Hill says in his court complaint. Rogers described crossing paths with a woman in the woods and shooting her after she “looked as though she was made nervous by the contact.”

Police were summoned at 7:20 p.m. Sunday to an Anchorage bike path by neighbors who heard the shots and found -year-old Elizabeth Rumsey shot in the back. She remains in critical condition, but is expected to survive her injury. A day earlier Rumsey was in Talkeetna competing in — and winning — the annual Wilderness Woman Contest.

Police say Rogers went hunting for another vehicle to steal and found Deak stepping out of a 1990 silver Jeep Cherokee he had just started. Deak was shot several times in the torso and arm. Deak remains in critical condition in an Anchorage hospital and is expected to survive.

Deak’s wife called 911 and police swarmed the area with “every available Anchorage police officer and detective,” Hill’s affidavit says.

One officer spotted the suspect vehicle, but the Jeep’s driver eluded him. After calling for spike strips to disable the vehicle, Anchorage police resorted to blocking and pinning maneuvers, where they rammed the suspect’s stolen Cherokee at about 7:29 a.m. Monday morning at Boniface and Northern Lights. Police were still at that crime scene Monday afternoon.

“In the interest of public safety it’s stop the vehicle, get the bad guy,” APD spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman said after a joint press conference with police and troopers at Anchorage police headquarters.

Honeman praised the officer who rammed the vehicle and sustained a minor leg injury in the process. Police say Rogers intended to shoot it out with police, but he told police his gun “just clicked,” according to the court complaint. Police recovered a .357 magnum handgun with one round fired and five live bullets in the chamber. Police also found more live rounds of .357 ammunition in the suspect’s jacket after his arrest.

This isn’t Rogers’ first run-in with the law. His criminal history includes harassment, driving under the influence, refusal to submit to a chemical test, reckless endangerment, arson and assault. He also has a pending DUI case in which Investigator Vik was the arresting officer.

Contact John R. Moses at john.moses@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

A TIMELINE OF CRIME

5:45 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 2:

State Troopers respond to a home on Gunnysack Road in Palmer after a 911 call from a victim of a machete attack. Troopers find her severely injured and her boyfriend dead. She identifies the attacker as 27-year-old Christopher Erin Rogers Jr., the son of murder victim Christopher Erin Rogers Sr.

10:30 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 2:

A resident reports a man in distress at Lois Street and Spenard in Anchorage. Police find 27-year-old University of Alaska Anchorage graduate student Jason Wenger shot to death in the driver’s seat of his Ford Bronco, the truck idling and the radio on. Nothing seemed to be stolen. Neighbors report hearing shots hours earlier and thinking they were vehicle backfires.

7:20 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 2:

Police and rescue personnel rush to a downtown bike trail after neighbors heard shots and found 33-year-old Elizabeth Rumsey shot in the back and severely injured near the Chester Creek Trail. She said her attacker was a thin man who had asked her for the time. Several shots were fired at her after she said she felt uncomfortable and hurried away from the man.

About 7 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3:

Anchorage resident Tamas Deak, 43, was shot after exiting a Jeep Cherokee he was warming up in his driveway while preparing to go to work. His Jeep was stolen and his wife called 911. Police begin a 24-minute intense search of the neighborhood using every available law enforcement officer.

7:29 a.m. Monday, Dec. 3:

A patrol officer spots the stolen Jeep but the driver eludes him. Other officers catch up and at 7:29 a.m. ram the Jeep. The driver, identified as Palmer murder suspect Rogers, is captured.

THE TOLL

Deceased:

• Christopher Erin Rogers Sr., 51, of Palmer killed with a machete while sleeping in his bedroom early Sunday morning.

• Jason Wenger, 27, of Anchorage shot while sitting in his Ford Bronco Sunday morning during an aborted car-jacking in Anchorage’s Spenard neighborhood.

In critical condition:

• Elann Moren, 55, of Palmer wounded severely in a machete attack Sunday.

• Elizabeth Rumsey, 33, of Anchorage shot in the back near 19th Avenue and M Street while jogging in Anchorage.

• Tamas Deak, 43, of Anchorage shot during a car-jacking at 16th Avenue and K Street.